“The Empress of China” Tops Ratings in Hong Kong
Struggling with mediocre viewership ratings this year, TVB decided to broadcast Fan Bingbing’s (范冰冰) Mainland Chinese blockbuster The Empress of China <武則天>. It did not take long for the drama to become a household hit. After debuting at a 23 points, The Empress of China peaked at 30 points during its second week of broadcast.
Topping ratings over other TVB dramas this year, The Empress of China averaged 27 points, attracting 1.72 million viewers. The ratings increased three points compared to the prior week, as Hong Kong viewers were attracted by the suspenseful storyline.
Although dramas airing before and after The Empress of China’s timeslot happily yielded higher ratings as well. Limelight Years <華麗轉身> had a 1-point increase from its debut week, and drew in 1.77 million viewers when it peaked at 27.3 points.
TVB relayed the good news to Fan Bingbing and extended an invitation for her to promote the series in Hong Kong with rumored boyfriend, Li Chen (李晨). Thrilled about the excellent reception, Fan Bingbing thanked everyone for the support, but has yet to make travel arrangements to Hong Kong due to her tight schedule.
Bingbing said, “Hearing these news makes me very happy. This drama viewership ratings came in first in Mainland China and Taiwan – I hope it can achieve the same results in Hong Kong. I watched the Hong Kong version with the voice dubs and I think it has a great Hong Kong feel to it. I hope my Hong Kong friends will love the drama. Thank you.”
Extremely pleased about the positive reception, TVB Deputy Director of External Affairs Tsang Sing Ming (曾醒明) expressed, “The debut of The Empress of China is not bad – the storyline is exciting and is worth following. I’m confident that the ratings would continue to go up.”
Source: On.cc; Oriental Daily
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
High ratings eh? That must piss of those anti-mainlander HK’ers.
Not surprised since not much to watch on TVB right now. What else to watch?
Am enjoying so far and is typical palace scheming series and nothing more. Sometimes I feel too much emphasis on the clothes, the men’s clothes however very cumbersome.
By the way the series is too bright like some pointed out. As if 10 spotlights on their faces.
I must however say the voice acting is great (mandarin version).
@funnlim
Instead of forcing yourself to watch just because there’s nothing else, how about reading books or other activities? TV shouldn’t be the only source of entertainment.
@funnlim Totally agree with you. The series is way too bright. It looks a bit fake in everything …………. not natural at all. I don’t like the Cantonese dubbing …………….. lack of emotions. Perhaps it is better to watch the Mandarin version.
@orchid123 Definitely better to watch the Mandarin version, as the Cantonese version is so weird-sounding…I watched half an episode and already couldn’t stand it (got so distracted with the horrible dubbing that I found it difficult to focus on anything else).
By the way…the peak rating was actually 29.49 points — technically not quite 30 points yet (Mingpao reported the actual true rating whereas Oriental Daily and other tabloids rounded the number up…I guess they’re THAT desperate to report 30 points, eh?).
@funnlim Yup, there truly is nothing to watch (though to be honest, it’s been that way for years already)….except in the midnight timeslot, that is.
On a related note….with the success of The Greed of Man’s re-broadcast in that time slot, looks like TVB should place more focus on re-broadcasting classic series — it will definitely help with the ratings issue. I heard that they are planning to re-broadcast 1989’s The Justice of Life after TGOM finishes — absolutely great choice, as that series also tops the list as one of TVB’s greatest series of all time (keep up this classic series re-broadcast thing, TVB — you’re finally doing something right so let’s not ruin it, ok?).
I don’t really like the series. But like what fun said, what else is there to watch???? Limelight years is very entertaining so far. And kudos to Linda for her breakthrough role in it.